ARVIND POV:

I came home from the forum mall. The incidents that happened in the mall flashed in my mind. I was worried about how Divya would react. I was also concerned about how Navya is going to portray things to her sister. For sure, Navya felt angry on me due to the entire happening.

Will her grief makes me more distant from Divya? Will Divya at least give me a chance to talk with her. No, I don't think so as I made her sister agonize. Now, I need to suffer for that. I need to be confident and have to help Divya understand the actual situation.

I should give the sisters some time to digest the fact. I decided to meet them after one week.

I went home, sat in the living room. I saw Lalitha didi (my maid) coming towards me. An odd time. She usually comes in the morning and evening to do the work. Today, working at noon felt something fishy.

She was in a reflective mood.

"Arvind, I want some days off. I have to go to my hometown." she could have called me over the phone too, but maybe she preferred to meet directly. But I also know that she is hesitant to say if there is an issue. She looked worried. Something was bothering her.

"Is everything alright, didi?"

Hearing my question, she became teary-eyed. I was surprised to see her cry. She is a strong woman, and she had seen all the ups and downs in her life as her family was once an excellent well-settled family, and then had seen utter poverty due to loss in Business.

I asked her," What is the problem?" as I was worried about seeing her in such a state.

"My husband is being accused of a murder. Everything is against him. And above all this, there is an eyewitness also."

"I called your father, but he didn't pick. my husband might have to go to jail too if things aren't favorable to us." She sighed, wiping her tears.

"Is he innocent?"I questioned.

"Yes, Arvind. They are trying to accuse my husband, purposefully."

"Do you have any doubt about anyone, in particular, didi?"

"My husband had a business partner while he was doing Business. He misused the money, and that's how we got a loss in Business too."

"That fraud case is running for long years in the court. After many years of struggle, the case was coming to and end in favor of my husband."

"The dead guy was one of the loyal persons and witnesses to us in that case. To win the case, they have murdered him and trying to impose that murder on my husband." She started crying again.

I tried to calm her down, dialed my father. He didn't pick my call too. I made a few more attempts in the hope that he would lift, but of no use.

I immediately called Sunil. His father can help us as he has a good background. Moreover, he has political connections. On the third ring, he picked my call.

"Hi, Arvind, how was the date, bro?"

"I told her everything."

"Oh! Great, what did she (Navya) say then?"

" Sunil, I need your help.." I interrupted him as it was not my main concern right now.

He asked," okay, what kind of help...."

I told him everything about Lalitha didi's husband and his murder trial.

" Okay, Arvind, I will ask my dad to help on this." He replied after listening to everything.

"I want you to come with me to Lalitha didi's hometown."

"sure! Let's do that. We can find some information too."

"Thanks, Bro !"

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ARVIND POV:

Place: Police station.

The next day morning, we went with lalitha didi to her hometown. We convinced Lalitha didi to go home and take some rest. Sunil and I went to the police station and inquired about the police officer Jaydeep.

"Please get seated. Sir is interrogating a criminal" said one of the constables in the station.

We could hear the bashing sounds from inside a cell. Interrogations could be cruel, I thought.

" I'll be coming in half an hour. By then I want to know the truth. Anything other than that, I swear, your body would be in the graveyard the next moment" we heard a harsh loud metallic voice from inside.

A strong and tall guy with big black eyes came from inside.

"Sir, they came to talk about that case," the constables who asked us to sit gave him a brief introduction about us.

He looked at us arrogantly and said," who do you think you are? Do you think I would be a Puppet in front of these politicians? No, never. I would help you in this case legally. I won't do anything which is out of the law. Moreover, there is already an eyewitness in this case."

We nodded to him and asked if we can see the FIR to know the details. He ordered one of his constables to show us FIR.

In FIR it was written that murder was done in a 10-acre field. At that time the field was wet due to heavy rain. The guy named Subash killed the victim brutally with a sword. The victim was wounded on his back and on the throat. His throat was cut. There were photos from the murder spot. It was scary to see the way the murderer attacked the victim.

According to the FIR, there were 20 people who were suspected. These people used to work in that land very frequently. The sunflower field is in the outskirts of the town. So, not everyone go to that place. There was an eyewitness who claimed that Lalitha didi's husband was the murderer. According to the witness, Subash killed the victim around 10 AM in the morning While the victim was working at the field.

We finished reading the entire FIR. Later, we went to see Lalitha didi's husband who was locked up in one of the cells.

We consoled and gave assurance to him, " We will find a way and prove you innocent" saying so, we moved towards the Police officer, Jaydeep.

"Could you help us to go to Sunflower field?"I asked Jaydeep.

"I would do anything which is not illegal," he snapped and ordered one of the constables to take us to the murder spot.

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ARVIND POV:

Murder spot:

This murder happened 15 days back. I wondered why Lalitha didi didn't tell me until yesterday.

The constable told us that the eyewitness came 2 days back to the police station.

Firstly, We need to prove the police that whatever the eyewitness is saying is to distract police from the main murderer.

We went along with the constable to the sunflower field. We could see the footsteps in the field even after 15 days of the murder as the field was seized by the police. It was clearly visible that the victim was chased by the murderer.

There were dried blood stains on the Sunflowers near the dead spot.

"Sunil, Sunflowers change their direction according to the movement of the sun right?"I questioned.

"yeah, right bro".

"can we get any clue from that? ".

He thought for a while and said: "yes, we can sort out the time murder happened and if the time was not matched with that quoted by the eyewitness we should be able to prove subash as innocent. Luckily there was no rain after the murder.

"We shall try to match at which position the blood drops from the sunflower plant fell on the ground," Sunil told.     

That was a great idea the blood drops on the ground would reveal the position of the plant thereby the time of the day.

We observed that day till evening the different positions the sunflower turned. The plant direction matched the blood stains on the ground around 4'oclock in the evening. We jumped in glee. We found the clue.

We went back to the police officer Jaydeep and detailed him on our findings.

He was convinced and spoke to us better than earlier. He appreciated us for bringing out a twist in the trial.

We also laid out a plan before him to catch the actual murderer.

He agreed to implement the plan.

"Ask all other 19 suspects to come to the station and ask them to sign on the file as they are suspects. Watch them with which hand they are signing. If they don't know how to sign take fingerprints from them and offer tea. Observe which hand they are using to drink it" sunil detailed the plan.

Jayadeep implemented the plan as suggested. Per his observation, it was found that among the 20 people four were left handed.

"I have a doubt..."Jaydeep said.

"How can you say that the person who drank the tea with left hand is left-handed? There is a possibility that he might would have tricked us Right?"

Sunil smiled and said, "At our home, we may take tea with any hand. But the ease with which hand we use differs."

"in police station definitely they would have almost respect and fear on police. So, definitely,they would use their daily using hand while taking tea subconsciously with out thinking deep.

" ok ! but, how can you say if the murderer was right handed or left handed?", Jaydeep questioned back.

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this chapter was a little bit different from other chapters.

don't know how you would like this chapter or not.

let us see...DO share your thoughts on this chapter...

let me know if there is any confusion.

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